Is Capability only about Intelligence?
Bioss Southern Africa
If one looks back into psychological, academic literature, one would see that research on cognition
and capability have developed in parallel to one another over the years, with both being identified as
influencers of individual and organisational performance.
As a result, several theorists have assumed that cognition/intelligence may be linked to an
individual’s capability to handle complexity.
At Bioss, we carried out a research study on 100 candidates who had completed the Career Path
Appreciation, which is a unique assessment of an individual’s ability to make decisions in the face of
uncertainty, as well as the Wechsler Adult intelligence Scale (WAIS-III) assessment, which is
probably the flagship assessment of general intelligence in the market. This study aimed to identify a
relationship or correlation between the capability to handle complexity, and intelligence/cognition, and
what this relationship entailed.
The findings of this research were very interesting. They supported the theoretical foundation of what
capability is meant to measure, as originally defined by Elliot Jaques. That is, capability appears to
be more of a measure of social, conceptual and common sense reasoning and the ability to hold
several concepts in one’s mind and manipulate them, than a measure of nonverbal perceptual
reasoning, processing speed, or visual-motor perceptual reasoning.
The implications of this study are quite significant. For example, these findings suggest that even if
based on the same underlying framework (Stratified Systems Theory), cognitive tools do not assess
the same construct of “capability” assessed by the Career Path Appreciation. Further, there is a clear
distinction between “clever” people who learn quickly and process things fast, and those who can
deal with uncertainty and complexity the way Elliot Jacques defined it.
The original version of this post can be found here.
© 2022 BIOSS ™. All Rights Reserved.